Phuc was photographed at the age of nine as she ran, undressed and screamed in agony after being thrown napalm by a Skyraider attack aircraft in southern Vietnam. Nick Ut, the photographer who captured the image in June 1972, expelled her for medical treatment. Phuc spent more than a year in the hospital recovering from her injuries and has lived with constant pain and limited movement. He underwent the 12th and final round of laser treatment at the Miami Institute of Dermatology and Laser this week, NBC 6 South Florida reported. In Miami, she also met Ut, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her picture, which she took at the age of 21, and which she believes saved her life. He said he wished everyone could “live with love, hope and forgiveness, and if everyone can learn to live that way, we do not need a war at all.” Phuc has described that he hated photography and that he felt ugly and ashamed of being portrayed naked. Her clothes had been set on fire by her body. In the years following the attack, he felt suicidal as he lived with mental trauma and excruciating physical pain. However, he moved to Canada in the 1990s and went on to found the Kim Foundation International, which provides medical care, including psychological support, to children affected by the war. In an interview with CBC last month, she said: “I am no longer a victim of war. I’m a survivor. “I feel like 50 years ago I was a victim of war, but 50 years later, I was a friend, a helper, a mother, a grandmother and a survivor who cried out for peace.”
